What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 537: Itʼs A Really Big Event

Holy shit…

The scale of this challenge is way better than I expected… The venue that they booked was huge…

This is the kind of venue where you would go to watch some really popular idol at some major concert… And even then, this place was bigger than any concert venue I knew of back in my universe…

I guess now that things are on a galactic scale, such a size was probably considered normal here. But knowing that this place was sold out was also insane…

The place was octagonal in shape with the stage leading out from one of the sides and ending in the centre of the octagon in an inverted T shape.

They had already set up two different bar counters with the back facing each other which Valiea and I would occupy once the challenge starts.

From what I understand, the people who paid for the standing tickets would be our ʼjudgesʼ, just like what happened when I challenged Valiea the first time.

Apparently, just to get the ticket to get the right to stand here would cost a person over ten thousand Credits and yet that didnʼt dissuade people from purchasing it.

I shuddered a little when the scale of this challenge finally dawned on me.

I was going to be appearing in front of at least several hundreds of thousands of people live and probably several billion more online.

This was a number that I never thought I would even deal with in any situation at all yet here I am…

”Nervous?” A voice came from behind.

I turned to see Valiea standing there with a smile on her face.

I nodded, ”I didnʼt realise that this challenge would have this big of an audience. I thought we would just be doing the same thing as last time where we would do this back in your bar.”

”You have my husband to thank for that. Heʼs the one who knows how to make a show. Without him, I doubt we would be as popular as we currently are.”

”Right…”

Currently, we were the only ones that were standing inside the venue aside from the workers that were still busy setting things up and making sure everything was where they should be.

Oh, Ragbarʼs there too, the guy busy directing the workers while coordinating with the venue owners on setting things up.

I guess he also has experience in events management as well?

I was already wearing my mask so I didnʼt need to worry about them realising the true identity of Valieaʼs opponent while my girls were also waiting with the crowd outside to join in as one of the ʼjudgesʼ.

Valiea looked out at the currently empty seats that would most definitely be filled later, ”You donʼt need to think about it that much. Just imagine that you are back at your ship and youʼre simply making the drinks for your crew. I do that everytime and everything around me just fades to black so the only thing in my vision is the bar and the bottles.”

”Should I remind you that Iʼm not a professional bartender or even a professional chef for that matter?”

She turned back to smirk at me, ”Could have fooled me. And yet here I am, participating in this challenge despite the fact that I know for sure that I will lose.”

”I wouldnʼt be that sure yet… Who knows? I might just mess up or maybe the crowd might have a different opinion just like last time.”

”Tera please, thereʼs a limit to humility where it becomes arrogance by itself. Unless youʼre telling me that you arenʼt even aware of your own talents?”

I huffed at her, ”Hey, first of all, Iʼm self taught. And the primary people who I use my cooking skills for are my girls so itʼs not like I have a good frame of reference to begin with.”

I mean… Iʼm still making those condiments for Tyle back at Denibi station but since those are just condiments, they donʼt count.

And Iʼm pretty sure that this was all because of the perks I had chosen during my character creation so most of it was not due to my own skill and just some external thing that was affecting me. I wasnʼt going to get arrogant over a skill that I didnʼt even earn myself to begin with.

Who knows? Maybe one day, the perks lose their effect and then everything that I have comes crashing down so I wouldnʼt want to rely too much on it.

Valiea shrugged, ”Fair enough. Although Iʼve already prepared myself for this loss, but that doesnʼt mean Iʼm not going to do my best anyway. Besides, this is going to be good publicity for us.”

”Donʼt the people in second place usually donʼt get much attention?”

She crossed all four of her arms in front of her chest, ”Normally yes, but itʼs not like you are opening up your own bar anytime soon right? Since these people canʼt find you, they will have to settle for the second best, which happens to be me. Anyway, my husband knows what heʼs doing and I trust him ”

Well… Itʼs not like I know about how people would think so I canʼt say anything in regards to this anyway.

”Anyway, what are you doing out here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the four armed bartender.

”Just checking things out like you. This isnʼt something we do daily after all so even I feel a little worried that things might go wrong.”

”What? Youʼre scared that there might be troublemakers or something?”

”Did you forget, Miss Tera? Not too long ago some people were even sent to try and kill us.”

I grimaced, ”Point proven… How long before this starts?”

She took out her personal terminal, ”In about two more hours. The entrance will open in half an hour so this place will be flooded soon. There are some other bars who are taking this opportunity to advertise themselves so weʼre letting them handle the introduction of the show first to get things going before we finally show up.”

”So something like a pre-show or something?”

She nodded, ”Thatʼs right, so we still have a few hours before we need to show up so you can just go ahead and relax. Ah… Actually, maybe donʼt relax too much because I think there might be people who might try to take your life.”

I stared at her.

She scratched her cheek with one of her hands, ”Yeah… I guess this is a little late to tell you but… Now that you are in this industry, youʼll need to watch your backs for jealous competitors who would resort to violence to take you out…”

”And you didnʼt think about warning us about this ahead of time?”

”Honestly… Itʼs because we were already so used to them that we didnʼt even think about it… Sorry…”

I shrugged, ”Whatever, this is only for today isnʼt it? Since they wouldnʼt know my real face anyway. I guess this wouldnʼt change anything.”

She gave me a reassuring smile, ”Donʼt worry, we spent quite a bit on security so there shouldnʼt be any problems. We also moved some of our bouncer androids here as well so they would also raise an alarm the moment any problems come up.”

Hmm… While I wouldnʼt be able to carry my shotgun with me, I do have my pistol so I wasnʼt completely defenceless in case a fight does happen…

Of course, the best case scenario would be that nothing happens, but after that previous job with Deviminio, Iʼm not expecting nothing to happen.

Actually… If I think about it… Even if something happens, I wouldnʼt really be disadvantaged anyway so what am I worried about?

At most I would just need to kill my attacker and thatʼs the end of my problems.

Compared to that, needing to bartend in front of the crowd seems to be a more daunting task for me…

Valiea gave me a look, ”Please donʼt sabotage the event just to get out of this… If you really donʼt want to go ahead with this, just let us know… Please…”

Her voice actually sounded desperate at the end.

I waved at her, ”Donʼt worry, the girls had also been looking forward to this so I wonʼt do anything like that.”

They even prepared some kind of congratulatory gift as well but I decided not to tell her that… And Iʼm also really glad I managed to divert their attention away from it last night.

”Anyway, I guess we should go backstage now? It seems like they might be starting soon,” I suggested.

She waved at me, ”You can go ahead, Miss Tera, Iʼll wait for my husband.”

If she says so.

I turned and walked through the doors that led to the backstage, following the signs that led me to the waiting room.

When I got there, I found someone crouching outside my waiting room… Placing a really suspicious box at my door.

…

…

My guy, is that a bomb?